Gingerclown

"Gingerclown" (2013, Balázs Hatvani) is a horror comedy set in 1983.

I add "comedy" in loosest possible way....

A group of unconvincing high school bullies dare Sam (Ashley Lloyd) to go into an abandoned amusement park. One of the bullies' disgruntled girlfriends, Jenny (Erin Hayes), who seems to be growing a conscience, goes in after him, spurring the bullies to follow suit.

Unfortunately, the park is now home to a pack of monstrous creatures who, as well as hating each other, also enjoy torturing and killing hapless humans.

An absolute 'WTF' from the get go. From the forced "bad movie" dialogue from our 'teens' to the foul-mouthed rubber creatures, this film is just not what I expected.

It's like someone said "you know, Tim Curry was terrifying as IT and Brad Dourif really was fantastic as that sweary little dolly... I wonder if they'd voice a scary clown and a gross alien creature for us?" and somehow convinced them, and Lance Henriksen from Aliens, to join the cast! Albeit with voiceovers probably recorded elsewhere...

But that's as far as the creativity went...

From start to end, this film smacked of wanting to make a 'so bad it's good' film, without actually being able to pull it off. The result? So bad it's... well, bad!

The purposefully stilted delivery of all of the lines gives the film an odd feeling. Rather than being 'in the style of the 1980s' it comes across more of someone doing a really bad impression of an 80s film...

The styling of the creatures is fun. From evil tea kettles to head-punting spider monsters, but each scene is the same. It's like walking through a ghost ride with a camera then playing it back to find that you really had to be there to enjoy it.

1) Sam stumbles into new scene
2) Jenny follows
3) awkward conversation about how all the others are dicks/escaping
4) cue monster
5) monster swears a lot and says some crazy stuff (eg. a crap riddle)
6) monster attacks
7) Sam and Jenny escape and move onto next scene
8) Repeat steps 1 - 7

Ginger Clown himself (Tim Curry) doesn't look much like a clown, and doesn't really sound like Tim Curry... Which surely defeats the purpose?

It's very formulaic and I wouldn't sit through it again, but I must commend Mr Hatvani on getting a horror-star studded voiceover cast into his movie, even if the end product is just a horror channel worthy effort.

Hani

Zombieland

"Zombieland" (2009, Relativity Media, Ruben Fleischer) is an action-packed, zombie-apocalypse gore comedy!

The zombie apocalypse is upon us, thanks to mad cow disease, and nerdy student, "Columbus" (Jesse Eisenberg) *everyone's named after where they come from rather than their actual names. It's the apocalypse, who cares about names?!* has had to come to terms with his need for survival. He has devised some simple rules to live (and keep living) by:

1. Cardio
2. Double Tap
3. Beware of bathrooms (good one, it's always when you're busy!)
4. Seatbelts
5. Cast iron skillet
6. Travel light
7. Get a kickass partner
8. Bounty paper towels
9. Bowling ball
10. Don't/Be a hero (depending on whether you're trying to impress a girl or not)
11. Limber up
12. Avoid stip joints
13. Know your way out
14. buddy system
15. Always check the back seat
16. Enjoy the small things
17. Swiss army knives are your friends
18. clean socks are everyone's friends
19. Hygiene
20. Backup

**(the numbers don't correlate, I wasn't that dedicated to taking notes)**

The list begins much smaller, but as he travels (on his way to his home of Columbus to find his parents), the list increases in size.

He meets "Tallahassee" (Woody Harrelson), a tough guy in a cowboy hat who lets Columbus tag along...grudgingly. Tallahassee loves Twinkies. Being Scottish, I've never experienced a Twinkie so I'm not sure how funny this craving is. But I like to imagine it's like craving Irn Bru; sugary awesomeness that I can live without until I get told that I can't have any. Then I NEED it!

The boys run into scheming sisters, "Wichita" (Emma Stone) and "Little Rock" (Abigail Breslin) and all four begin making their way instead to a themepark called "Pacific Playland" where the girls are convinced is zombie free. Of course!

A very fun comedy horror film with good long-running jokes, plenty of gore and an excellent cameo from the great Bill Murray! (I love Bill Murray). I really do hope that is his house ;) But somehow, I doubt it.

The characters are likable and there's even one or two real scares in there! It's the kind of zombie flick that both horror-geeks and normals can enjoy; not relying too much on you having seen any iconic zombie movies to get the jokes.

It's very American in the way that "Shaun of the Dead" is very English, which I enjoy. And the make up and effects are excellent (like I'd expect anything less from Tony Gardner, who was involved in Michael Jackson's masterpiece video, "Thriller"?!).

I just recently got this DVD back from a colleague who:

a) watched it and didn't even LIKE it!!! (He said it was too funny to be a zombie movie... What a weirdo! He clearly hasn't seen "Fido", "Wasting Away" or "Shaun of the Dead"!)

and b) kept it for about 3 months! So naturally, the first thing I did was rewatch it :)

An excellent film!

[Picture: Relativity Media]



Hani